SECTION VIII.—God Reigns in a Pure Heart.

All the treasures of grace are the
fruit of purity of heart and perfect abandonment.

He, therefore, who wishes to enjoy an abundance
of all blessings had but one thing to do; to purify his heart by detaching
it from creatures, and to abandon himself entirely to God. In this purity
and abandonment he will find all that he desires. “May others, Lord,
ask You for all sorts of gifts, may they multiply their words and prayers;
as for me, my God, I only ask one single gift, I have only one prayer to
make—give me a pure heart.” O pure heart! how happy you are; for by
the liveliness of your faith you see God as He is in Himself. You see Him
in all things and at every moment working within you and around you. In
all things you are His subject and His instrument. He rules you and leads
you. You have not to
45think because He thinks for you. Whatever happens
to you, or may happen by His will, it is enough for Him that you will it
also. He understands your readiness. In your salutary blindness you try
to discover in yourself this desire, but you cannot see it, nevertheless
He sees it quite clearly. How foolish you are! a well-disposed heart is a
heart in which God dwells. Seeing therefore the good inclinations in this
heart God well knows that it will remain always submissive to His will;
He knows also that you are ignorant of what would be useful to you and
therefore He makes it His business to give you what is necessary.

It matters very little to Him whether you
are thwarted or not. You imagine you are going East, He makes you go
West. You are about to strike against a rock, He pushes the tiller and
brings you into port. Without either map or a compass, wind or tide,
the voyages you make are always fortunate. If you encounter pirates,
an unexpected puff of wind instantly wafts you beyond their reach.

O good will! O pure heart! Jesus well knew
where to place you when He ranked you among the Beatitudes. What greater
happiness can there be than to possess God, if He mutually possesses
you? It is a state full of charm and of joy, in which the soul reposes
peacefully in the bosom of divine Providence where it sports innocently
with the divine Wisdom, feeling no anxiety about the journey which suffers
no interruption, but in spite of rocks and pirates and constant storms,
ever continues as happy as possible.

O pure heart! O good will! the sole foundation
of every spiritual state, to you are granted the gifts of firm faith,
holy hope, perfect confidence and pure love, and by you are they made
profitable.

On your stem are grafted the flowers of the
desert; in other words, from you spring those priceless graces which
blossom in souls entirely detached, where God, as in an uninhabited
dwelling, takes up His abode to the exclusion of all else. You are the
faithful source from whence flow those streams that water the flower
garden of the divine Spouse, and of His chosen one. Your voice calls
all the souls of men saying to them, “Look well at me; it is I who
impart fair love, that love which chooses the better part and lays hold
of it. It is I who give birth to that fear, so gentle and efficacious,
which produces a horror of evil, and makes it easy to avoid; I, who bring
to light those fine perceptions by which are discovered the greatness
of God and the value of virtue; in fine it is from me that those ardent
desires take their rise, enkindled by holy hope. It is I who cause virtue
to be practised in expectation of the promised reward—that
46divine Object of our love, the possession of Whom will
one day form the happiness of faithful souls. Invite them all to come
to you to be enriched with your inexhaustible treasures. All spiritual
states and paths lead back to you. It is from you that they derive all
that is beautiful, attractive, and charming, for all is drawn from your
depths. Those marvellous fruits of grace, and of every kind of virtue
that helps to nourish the soul, and that abounds on every side, are
produced by you. Milk and honey flow in your land. Your breasts distil
milk, and on your bosom is the bouquet of myrrh from which, under the
pressure of your fingers, the aromatic liquid flows abundantly.

Let us go, then, let us run and fly to that
ocean of love by which we are attracted! What are we waiting for? Let
us start at once, let us lose ourselves in God, even in His heart, to
become inebriated with the wine of His charity. We shall find in His
heart the key of heavenly treasures. Let us begin at once our journey
to Heaven. There is no passage that we cannot discover, nothing is shut
against us, neither the garden, nor the cellar, nor the vineyard. If we
desire to breathe the fresh country air, we can go on our own feet and
return when we please. With this key of David we can enter and depart;
it is the key of science, and of that abyss in which are contained all the
hidden treasures of divine Wisdom. With this heavenly key we also open the
gates of mystical death with its sacred darkness. By it also we descend
into the deep pools and into the den of lions. By it souls are thrust
into those obscure prisons from whence they emerge unscathed. By it we
are introduced into that joyful place where light and understanding have
their dwelling, where the Spouse takes the midday rest in the open air,
and where He reveals the secrets of His love to faithful souls. O divine
incommunicable secrets that no mortal tongue can describe! Since every
good thing that it is possible to possess is given to those who love,
let us love then, in order to be enriched with them; for love produces
sanctity with all that accompanies it. It flows on every side, on the
right hand and on the left, into those hearts open to receive this divine
outpouring. O divine harvest for eternity! it is not possible to praise
you sufficiently. And why speak so much about you? How much better to
possess you in silence than to praise you with mere words. But what am I
saying? You must be praised but only because you take possession of us,
for, from the moment you enter into possession of a heart, then reading,
writing, speaking or silence are matters of complete indifference. One
can take or leave anything, live in solitude, or as an apostle; one is
well or ill, dull or eloquent, in fact anything that you will. That
which you dictate, your faithful echo, the heart, repeats to all the
47faculties. In that compound of matter and spirit, the heart,
which you regard as your kingdom, you reign supreme, and as it has no
other instincts than those which you inspire, all the things that you
present are equally agreeable. Those things that nature, or the devil wish
to substitute, cause nothing but disgust and horror. If you allow it to
be occasionally overcome, it is only to make it wiser and more humble;
but from the moment it realises its mistake it returns to you with
renewed love, and clings to you with greater tenacity.